Two girls, one common purpose: to organize and plan social events for all Tufts students. Seniors Jennifer Alexis Smith - Alexis to her friends - and Nicole Masone are the two heads of the Tufts Programming Board, and they lend their skills to planning events like Fall Ball, Spring Fling, fall and spring comedy shows, film screenings, the Mr. Jumbo competition, and, most recently, Winter Bash.
"The Tufts Programming Board is an umbrella organization for social programs on campus," said Smith, a political science major from Avon, Connecticut. "Groups like the Concert Board, the Entertainment Board, the Spirit Coalition, the Film Series, the Lecture Series and the class councils are all parts of the larger programming board."
According to Masone, however, these sections often intertwine. "Groups within the board work together for different events," said Masone, a quantitative economics and computer science major from Long Island. "For example, a lot of different groups within the organization work to get the Mr. Jumbo competition up and running."
What exactly do these two girls do as the heads of the organization? "Our job is to run the administration, the office, [and] coordinate meetings and retreats," Smith said.
From the decorations to the entertainment, Masone and Smith connect the individual parts of an event into a seamless whole. In addition to running the show through Programming Board, Smith and Masone are both active members of the Spirit Coalition, Entertainment Board and the Lecture Series.
Though they say overall word of mouth has been positive, the girls' events don't always go entirely as planned.
"Mostly, they're just little problems," Smith said. "For example, with Winter Bash, we circulated these tickets to on and off-campus mailboxes. They said that we wouldn't be able to sell tickets at the door, but at the last minute, we realized that we could. So we sent some frantic campus-wide e-mails out, but it was a little too late."
"I got a couple of e-mails the next day telling me that some people didn't go to the event because they didn't have tickets," Smith said.
"We like to think that it didn't stop a lot of people from coming," Masone added. "But the truth is, it might have."
Though the girls said that they appreciate constructive criticism in e-mails, often they receive just the opposite. "People complain about silly things, like running out of soda," Masone said. "Sometimes I'll be in class, and people will be saying completely untrue things about an event we planned."
"It's just frustrating because most of the time, people don't know how much goes into each event," Masone added. "We have all these grandiose ideas that we can't necessarily follow through on because our budget just isn't big enough."
"I think there are parts of all jobs that aren't fun," Smith said. "But we do learn from those parts. We have constraints that are frustrating, and those often involve money."
Regardless of a sometimes problematic budget, the Tufts Programming Board has put together popular campus events. "Before this year, we had an event in the campus center during the winter," Masone said. "The only problem is that the venue is so small, and tons of people were coming out and having to wait in long lines outside in the cold. So we figured that a larger event like Winter Bash would be welcome."
And it was. "We booked the space, and then, when everything was ready, we went around to the fraternities and sororities to make sure nobody planned a party for the same night," Masone said.
As the girls had expected, the event was a huge success. "During Fall Ball, we had about 4,000 people, and I think that they had a lot of fun. So, those people told their friends about Winter Bash," Smith said.
"We think it went really well," Masone said.
While events like Winter Bash and Fall Ball take a couple of months to plan, other programs - Spring Fling, for example - take a while longer. "Co-chairs get a list of people in our price range, and ask people at the student fair who they want to hear," Smith said. "Then, we get in touch with the people that we need to speak with, and it all folds out from there."
"People started thinking about Spring Fling months ago," Masone said. (No word yet on who will be performing, though.)
Despite the girls' apparent knack for event planning, neither Smith nor Masone were involved in elaborate organizing like this in high school. In addition, neither is looking into possible careers in event programming. Masone, for example, is now applying to graduate schools for higher education administration.
Smith, however, believes that her experiences with the Programming Board have prepared her for any career. "I just relate this to practice in conflict management," Smith said. "Being able to mediate and solve problems is a necessary skill in any profession."
